Prototyping on Steroids

Domos is primarily an operating system, i.e. a software platform. This is also where we have our core competence. So when we realised we had to make hardware prototype to be able to connect all the cool devices and sensors out there, we clearly felt outside our comfort zone. I had been working towards big OEMs in China, and knew the upfront costs of getting to prototype level could easily run up to $100k. And even worse, it could take months to make. Not great for neither budget nor momentum.

We have now reduced the prototype cost by 90%. And delivery time from months to days. How? Thanks to very cool rapid prototyping technologies:

1. Low-cost hardware development boards like Raspberry Pi, Pandaboard etc have been adopted by makers and geeks around the world. The ecosystems build-in support in open source software projects. In our case, OpenWrt - a Linux distribution for embedded devices that included support for Wifi access point functionality – recently added communities working on RPi and other development boards.



Raspberry Pi - a $35 PC (image from PCMag.com)    

2. Additive manufacturing We’ll be using a technique called Selective Laser Sintering that provide robust, industrial grade casing for our prototypes at zero upfront cost. Best of all, we can test out design ideas at low cost before making final decision.
   

   

   SLS printed house

These rapid prototyping techniques almost completely remove the upfront investment. In return we get a higher unit cost of around $500 - $1,000 per unit. But we only need 10 units to power our Smart Home Labs, so for us it is a no-brainer. And we can do all this in Europe, allowing rapid and iterative development. The big takeaway is that innovators can test their creative ideas in rapid iterations with very limited upfront investment. The result? An explosion of cool, smart gadgets and wearable devices.

I just love technology.